2020 MOTY List: Freelance vs. Impulso

36. Freelance vs. Impulso AULL 11/21

PAS: We really have a lot of 2020 indy lucha to go through, and I am glad to see they are still guys in tiny arenas bleeding and throwing chairs at each other's head (although this was a disconcerting crowd for a November 2020 match). Freelance gets jumped early and is cut in the first minute. We get some great indy scum lucha crowd brawling, and a wild comeback from Freelance  with some great twisty arm drags and an absolutely killer Asai moonsault, with Freelance nearly breaking Impulso's spine against the ring. We get a really fun finishing run with some crazy rollups and submissions and a nasty jumping double underhook piledriver by Impulso for the neck breaking pin. This was much more of an apuestas style match than a title match, but the kind of thing you want to see from these guys. 

ER: Freelance is one of the most gifted movers in wrestling history. It really feels like he could have been getting the kind of gigs that Fenix wound up with (not a slight against Fenix, he is gifted in the same way), but perhaps his moniker is also his ethos? I'm not sure how I feel about him brawling through a decent sized crowd of people exclusively wearing masks around their necks, but the man moves like an angel and bleeds like a lucha legend. The match starts with Freelance getting hi-tossed across several chairs, and he's bleeding hard not long after. The crowd brawl is really strong, and those Arena Lopez Mateos chairs hit like they're made out of concrete. Every bump off them and every one thrown into a head looks brutal and ungiving. Freelance gets that great thick blood that drips all over his chest, and only makes his comebacks look more crazed. His Asai moonsault is an all time wrestling highspot, from the arc to the impact to the crash landing, Impulso getting forced up and over the railing whether or not he wanted to be. He's on wobbly legs, and then he'll break out a rope walk dropkick or a springboard splash, done in a way where he's still selling his blood loss while hitting these moves, like a performative graceful clumsiness. Flying matches punctuated by punching cuts is always awesome, and that double underhook Impulso piledriver is the kind of thing that Freelance will take right on his head. Bless. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST